His name is Bruce.

For more than five months, Bruce has been kept behind kennel bars at Ventura County Animal Services (VCAS), under an order that he be killed.

No walks. No exercise. No human touch.

Day after day, Bruce remains confined, even though VCAS’s own records call him a “model citizen.”

And it does not have to continue.

Bruce is not waiting because there is nowhere for him to go. SPARC, the rescue that placed him for adoption, is ready to bring him back under its protection.

There is a way to save Bruce.

That is why we are asking the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to step in, direct VCAS and County Counsel to take the legal steps necessary to save Bruce’s life, and allow the expert-supported transfer to move forward.

At the heart of this petition is Bruce, the dog still waiting on the other side of that decision. Patti’s story keeps him from disappearing beneath VCAS’s labels and the legal proceedings surrounding him. Her devotion shows what it means to refuse to let Bruce be forgotten while he waits.

When Patti first met Bruce, she believed he had only days to live. She went to the shelter thinking it might be the first and last time she would ever see him.

But Bruce was given more time.

And Patti came back.

Before every visit, she buys high-quality chicken for him. She takes it home, boils it, carefully shreds it, and keeps it in the refrigerator until the following day.

Then she schedules her ride on the senior transportation shuttle and makes the trip to VCAS. She does this every other day. The drivers know about Bruce now. They ask Patti how he is doing.

Patti no longer pays much attention to the calendar.

She simply knows when it is Bruce Day.

At home, Patti keeps a candle burning for him.

She lit the first one believing it might burn for only a few days because Bruce was scheduled to die. When that candle burned low, she used its flame to light the next one. Then the next.

Each new candle has been lit from the flame that came before it, so Bruce’s light has never gone out.

By the time Patti’s story was filmed, nearly three months had passed and she was on her eleventh candle.

She has kept the flame alive because Bruce is still behind those kennel bars. Because he is still waiting. And because she refuses to let either the light or her promise to him go out.

Patti hopes the day will come when she can finally allow the candle to grow dark.

Not because Bruce has been killed.

Because the vigil is over.

Because Bruce has been released from the shelter alive.

Because he is finally safe.

What began as one visit has become a promise Patti renews every other day.

Bruce has become part of Patti’s life.

And Patti has become part of his.

Bruce is still here. He is still loved. He has somewhere safe to go.

How many more Bruce Days—and how many more candles—should Patti have to count before the Board of Supervisors steps in to save him?

Watch Patti's story here. Chapter One: Bruce Day

SPARC is not asking for a favor. Bruce came from SPARC.

When he was adopted, SPARC did not simply hand him over and walk away. His adoption agreement was written to protect him throughout his life.

The agreement preserved SPARC’s independent ownership, possessory, and reversionary rights, including rights to notice, return, recovery, resumed custody, first refusal, and protection against Bruce’s unauthorized disposition or destruction.

Those rights existed before Bruce entered VCAS. They were intended for precisely the moment when his placement failed and he needed the rescue behind him to bring him home.

VCAS knew Bruce came from SPARC. Its own records connected him to the rescue. Before the decision to kill Bruce was issued, VCAS also received written notice of that connection and a request that he be returned to SPARC.

Yet SPARC was never named as a party. It was never formally notified, served, joined, represented, or given a hearing on its own rights.

No hearing or court has ever decided what rights the agreement gave SPARC once Bruce entered VCAS custody, or whether he should have been returned to SPARC instead of ordered killed.

And still, Bruce’s life hangs in the balance.

If VCAS kills Bruce before those rights are heard, there will be nothing left for SPARC to recover. No later ruling could bring him back. The lifelong protection written into his adoption agreement would be erased with him.

Bruce was never supposed to be left without the rescue that promised to stand behind him.

SPARC is still here. It is ready to take him back and make sure he has a safe place to live.

The Board of Supervisors can step in and make that possible before VCAS makes it impossible.

Bruce has a future waiting for him.

But he is not waiting because no one wants him.

He is waiting while the people prepared to save him remain on the other side of the kennel door.

He is waiting because VCAS keeps seeking and defending his destruction despite an available, humane alternative. He is waiting because VCAS is ignoring SPARC’s rights and devaluing Bruce’s life, even though the path to transfer already exists.

SPARC is ready to bring Bruce back and carry out the commitment it made to him: to secure a qualified, lifelong placement where he can live and be cared for.

That future is not merely a hope. It is a real, expert-supported alternative.

Dr. James Crosby has reviewed Bruce’s case and supports transfer. Dr. Crosby is a Ph.D. in Veterinary Medical Science, a certified canine behavior consultant, a former animal control division manager, a retired police lieutenant, and a Research Associate at Harvard University, where he serves as lead investigator for the Canine Aggression Initiative. He has been recognized as an expert in courts involving dog behavior, dog aggression, dog-bite investigation, dangerous-dog proceedings, animal-control practices, and related decision-making.

After reviewing Bruce’s history, the County’s evidence, and an available rescue placement, Dr. Crosby concluded that Bruce does not have to be killed. He stated that he had “no reservations” recommending Bruce’s transfer for lifetime care and management.

Nor does the Board have to create a new process to make that happen.

SPARC and VCAS already know how to work together when a dog needs to leave the shelter through a written transfer agreement. They have done it many times before.

Everything needed to begin Bruce’s future is already within reach: SPARC’s commitment, experienced people ready to help, expert support for transfer, and a process VCAS already uses.

What Bruce needs now is permission to leave.

Beyond VCAS, a different life is still possible: not a life defined by a kennel door, an animal ID number, or an order to end his life, but a life where Bruce can be known, cared for, and given the chance SPARC has been trying to secure for him.

That future cannot begin while VCAS continues to hold him, defend his destruction, and refuse the available transfer option.

For more than a decade, SPARC was Ventura County’s only other public animal shelter. SPARC and VCAS have a long history of working in the same community, serving the same public, and responding to animals in crisis. This is not a request from strangers. It is a request to allow a known Ventura County rescue, with a longstanding relationship to VCAS and a pre-existing commitment to Bruce, to do what it is ready to do.

Bruce does not need Ventura County to invent a new solution.

He needs the County to let the existing one work: return him to SPARC, allow the expert-supported transfer, and require VCAS to use the lawful, humane alternative already in front of it.

But VCAS wants Bruce reduced to a label.

Its own records tell a different story.

The same agency now defending Bruce’s destruction has documented him as easy to leash, easy to walk, and able to be handled, vaccinated, kenneled, and managed in custody without issue. Its records describe calm behavior, gentle interaction, a wagging tail, and ordinary moments that do not fit the one-dimensional story VCAS has tried to tell.

VCAS’s own records say it plainly: Bruce is a “model citizen” in his kennel.

That matters because VCAS is asking the public, the courts, and the Board of Supervisors to accept a version of Bruce that leaves out the parts of its own file that support care, transfer, and life.

VCAS knows how to choose transfer over death, even for dogs VCAS has described as having serious behavior concerns.

It has transferred many other dogs, including Thor and Phoenix, through written agreements with SPARC after using serious behavior language about them. That comparison matters because it shows two things at once: the transfer pathway exists, and VCAS knows how to use it when it chooses to.

But with Bruce, VCAS keeps seeking and defending destruction.

Bruce’s own shelter records do not justify reducing him to a label. They show a dog with a fuller story, a rescue with rights and responsibility, and an available path VCAS has refused to use.

Before Ventura County allows VCAS to kill Bruce, the County should have to confront the whole record.

Not just the parts VCAS selected to defend his death.

Bruce has already spent more than five months confined behind kennel bars. VCAS will not walk him, allow him any exercise, allow ordinary human touch, place him in playgroups, or permit an independent expert like Dr. Crosby to assess him in person. VCAS has also continued to block independent veterinary access, even as questions have arisen about Bruce’s health and care.

Then VCAS asks everyone else to treat the record it controls as the full story.

That is the problem. VCAS controls Bruce. VCAS controls access to Bruce. VCAS controls what independent experts and veterinarians are allowed to see. And then VCAS asks the Board to accept its own records and conclusions as enough to justify killing him.

The Board can still stop this.

Bruce’s death is not inevitable.

VCAS may have chosen to keep seeking and defending destruction, but the Board of Supervisors does not have to let that choice become final.

The Board has the authority to insist on a different outcome: one that recognizes SPARC’s rights, confronts the whole record, and lets the available transfer move forward before VCAS kills Bruce.

That is what this petition asks.

We are asking the Board to act because action is still possible.

Bruce has SPARC ready to take him back. He has expert support for transfer. He has a path out of VCAS. And VCAS has refused to let that path work.

The Board does not have to accept the false choice that VCAS is presenting. 

What we are asking the Board to do.

We are asking the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to act before it is too late.

1. Direct VCAS not to kill Bruce.
2. Direct VCAS and County Counsel to stop defending destruction as the County’s chosen outcome.
3. Direct County Counsel to return to court as necessary, seek or stipulate to relief from the destruction order, and support a lawful order allowing Bruce’s release to SPARC.
4. Direct VCAS to work with SPARC through a written transfer agreement so Bruce can be brought back under SPARC’s protection and placed in a qualified, lifelong setting.

This is the path available now.

Bruce has waited long enough.

The Board has the power to stop this.

Please sign for Bruce, and respectfully ask the Board to use it. 

Let Bruce leave VCAS alive.

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